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Father Barron’s ‘New Evangelization’ (8126)

Latest documentary encourages Catholics to spread the Good News in today’s world.

When Father Robert Barron headed to Australia to answer an invitation to roll out his Catholicism series there, he had no idea the trip would necessarily inspire another DVD on the faith.

“It came about in a certain way by accident,” said Father Barron, who is rector of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein, Ill., and founder of Word on Fire, a Catholic ministry.

Since he would spend two weeks in Australia and then another two weeks in England, he decided to bring the film crew over to these Western cultures and see what they might record about the faith in those locales.

After talking with many people, from Catholic youth to bishops, what they recorded was plenty. Despite all the filming, he recalls, “We weren’t sure what to do with all the material.”

While in Australia and England, he was giving talks on the New Evangelization. Soon, that inspired the answer.

Seeing the New Evangelization as the logical overarching framework, Father Barron and the crew continued filming people and adding interviews when they returned to the United States, featuring prominent Catholic thinkers such as George Weigel and Ross Douthat.

Father Barron and his crew then wove all this material together into a new four-DVD documentary called Catholicism: The New Evangelization.

What was the goal?

“It was to clarify what New Evangelization means,” explained Father Barron. “It’s a term used all the time and bandied about in the Church, but a lot of people don’t know what it is.”

For a clear explanation for today’s world, he looked to Blessed John Paul II, who coined the term “New Evangelization” in 1979 and who, in the 1980s, proclaimed that this New Evangelization calls for “new ardor, new methods and new expressions,” said Father Barron.

“We explored that. The purpose of this vision is for Catholics, to help them know what New Evangelization is and how to do it.”

Evangelical Challenges

The documentary brings out and addresses the cultural problems the modern faithful and the New Evangelization are faced with.

Father Barron lists them as “the rising secularism, indifferentism and the dictatorship of moral relativism, as Benedict XVI called it — there is no objective truth or objective morality, (just) rampant individualism and secularism that flattens out everything.”

Father Barron pointed out the documentary talks about why the faith’s ardor fell away after the Second Vatican Council. He argues “Vatican II was a missionary council to bring the good news out to the wider world. But the Church turned inward and debated sexuality morality and authority. We started looking in, and we lost that ardor, that missionary fervor.

“That has to be recovered. Now, [Pope] Francis said the Church should be looking out to the world. That is Vatican II.”

That issue prompted the documentary to look at how to find new expressions, new methods and new ways to share the faith, as called for by John Paul II. The DVD would necessarily answer the deep misunderstandings of people and of such relationships as between religion and science.

This evangelization is meant to reach those who are baptized but who have drifted from the Church and need to awaken to their faith again, Father Barron hopes.

The DVD also explores how the new revolution in communication technology fits into this picture of spreading the Good News.

New Evangelism Examples

Along the way, Father Barron found some surprising examples of these qualities for the New Evangelization in action, which the documentary highlights.

In Australia, he was moved and edified as he came across a number of new groups and different movements, many inspired by World Youth Day 2008, which was held in Sydney.

In England, he found Catholic Voices, “a wonderful media outreach,” he said. He discovered a lot of intellectual energy at the University of Durham and similar energy in the Church in Liverpool. One seminary he visited was built on the grounds of St. Thomas More’s home in Chelsea, with the seminary itself built on the spot where More’s home stood. He also discovered a vibrant parish in London’s infamous Soho district is attracting young people.

In America, he cites Word on Fire, as well as Spirit Juice Studios in Chicago.

Chapter titles in the six-part documentary unmistakably show that much content is devoted to the “New Ardor,” “New Methods” and “New Expressions.” They all ultimately lead to faith in action.

Of the four DVDs, which average 90 minutes in length, three are filled with bonus materials for study, such as two of Father Barron’s speeches abroad, plus long interviews with Catholic media authority and new Word on Fire hire Brandon Vogt, as well as Douthat, a columnist for The New York Times, and Weigel. There are also insights from J.R.R. Tolkien and Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

“Weigel articulates in our video a number of the points he made in his book [Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st‐Century Church],” Father Barron said. The bonus material includes the whole Weigel interview.

Multimedia Formation

Both individuals and groups can explore the New Evangelization, because Catholicism: The New Evangelization is not just a documentary, but a multimedia formation program. The additional material available includes leader and participant study guides.

Father Barron noted that his first series, simply titled Catholicism, is “for anybody, especially secularists.”

But this new documentary is an in-house venture, he said.

“This one is really for Catholics,” he explained. “This is more a how-to for Catholics: to reinvigorate them and help them know how to do this work more effectively.”

He affirmed that the New Evangelization historically goes back to Vatican II and has been the agenda of the last four popes.

As he envisions it, “The New Evangelization is the realization of Vatican II.” His new and inspiring documentary aims to help fulfill that vision.

Joseph Pronechen is a Register staff writer.

INFORMATION

Learn more at CatholicismNewEvangelization.com. Father Barron will appear on EWTN Live at 8pm Eastern on Dec. 18. And Catholicism: The New Evangelization airs on EWTN at 9:30pm Eastern on Dec. 18 and 1pm Eastern Dec. 21.

Comments

This puts a positive spin on a terrible problem: people have traded the pearl of great price for a bowl of pottage and fail to pass the faith on to their chilfren, most of whom now, truth be told, worship Mammon and Hedon. God grant success to these brave efforts to reevangelize the neo-pagans who dominate our world.

Posted by Scott Hutcheon on Saturday, Dec 21, 2013 2:09 PM (EST):

I for one prefer Msgr. Brunero Gherardini’s reading of V2 and highly recommend it to others trying to sort through the obvious double speak in the documents themselves. This constantly proscribing of a “New Evangelization” as a remedy to a direly sick Body of Christ is getting tiresome to say the least. It seems that the church has lost the trust of her flock and now we the lay faithful are charged with keeping it together. When men like Fr. Barron blame us constantly for why our churches aren’t overflowing it becomes almost comical. Or the need to blame the media or the culture. Never the church herself though. Never.

Posted by Antony Kurup on Thursday, Dec 19, 2013 1:11 AM (EST):

I am an ardent listener/reader of Fr. Barron. I am eager to see and listen to the DVDs. Where to get it?

“Father Barron pointed out the documentary talks about why the faith’s ardor fell away after the Second Vatican Council.”

Faith ardor fell away where it was very little that too only in appearance and in dead rituals.

For many Vat.II opened new possibilities.

Because few bad things happened AFTER Vat.II, to say or to understand it is because of Vat.II or vat. II caused them, is poorly graced intelligence.

To Evangelize people one must be already an APOSTLE. It means love and knowledge of God’s Word and gifts of the Spirit of Jesus the Lord and authority from him.

Jesus the Lord went on promoting Apostleship. The 72 disciples promoted to the status of Apostles, SAUL who became PAUL…and the young man who wanted to bury his father and then come and follow the Lord and to whom the Lord said, “Let the DEAD bury their own DEAD as for you, come, PROCLAIM the KINGDOM OF GOD.”

SIMPLY BEING a Catho.or Prot-o. or being a member of any other DIVIDED denomination does not mean one is already an Apostle or that he/she can do the work of an Apostle.

Posted by Theresa H on Friday, Dec 13, 2013 8:36 AM (EST):

Ben, from what I see in my own Church, as well as others nearby, many priests have their own manner of celebrating the Mass—all the while there are what is called “rubrics” in the Roman Missal indicating the “actions” of the priest, as well as the “words” they are supposed to pray/say, from the beginning to the end of Mass. (Many “hand missals” for the laity indicate both the actions, as well as the words of the priest throughout the Mass.) When our priests, whether deliberately or care-lessly, ignore the “rubrics” throughout the Mass it hurts the Body of Christ—His Church. I think it was St. Augustine who said: “O Christian, remember your dignity….” If each of us should “remember our dignity” and so behave as “Christians,” members of the Body of Christ, obedient as He was to the Father (“not my will, but thine be done”) how much more our priests—most especially during the “hour” of the Mass?

Posted by Ben in SoCal on Thursday, Dec 12, 2013 5:30 PM (EST):

It’s hard to watch Fr. Barron’s tremendous and aesthetically pleasing DVD and then go back to Catholic reality of banal liturgies and tepid theology. I love Father’s “Catholicism” series, but it does not pan out in normal Catholic settings. Rose window-colored glasses and incense-clogged noses from the true sights and stench.

Posted by Theresa H on Thursday, Dec 12, 2013 3:20 PM (EST):

The “changes” after Vatican II, or whatever they were locally called have led to fewer Catholics attending Sunday Mass over the years. (I don’t mean the Vat. II changes in themselves, but the conclusions people came to as a result of their interpretation of the “changes.”) There has also been a lessoning of attendance/appreciation of the other Sacraments: Penance, Marriage and even Baptism. No doubt, our materialistic and hedonistic culture tends to influence Catholics just about as much as anyone else. The New Evangelization cannot take hold of us if we do not know, or if we know, do not accept what the Catholic Church teaches in matters of faith and morals. We may still say and “feel” we love Jesus, but if we do not endeavor to “keep the Commandments,” and the teaching of Jesus via His Church (reading/study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is, basically, necessary) it won’t make much difference in the end.

Posted by dominador on Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013 8:26 PM (EST):

Young as an agent and recipient of this New Evangelization is also challenge to take action on it.

Posted by charles harmett on Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013 2:33 PM (EST):

Father Barron pointed out the documentary talks about why the faith’s ardor fell away after the Second Vatican Council. He argues “Vatican II was a missionary council to bring the good news out to the wider world. But the Church turned inward and debated sexuality morality and authority. We started looking in, and we lost that ardor, that missionary fervor.

Yes, I agree 100%. Now, the question is, who is responsible for initiating the debate that Father Barron refers to. Do not blame John and Jane Catholic. The responsibility belongs to those with disordered tendencies, who tried to get the church to approve of their disordered lifestyles. They ruined everything, shame on them.

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013 2:06 PM (EST):

Wistful projects such as Father Barron’s, however laudable, must be carried not only into an increasingly pagan world but into a shattered and bruised Catholic Church that has far to go to recover from what has been wrought upon her latest two generations in the name of the “spirit of Vatican II.” So long as Church leaders, whether clerical or lay, thrash in the weeds of hermeneutical trivia, liturgical abuse, crypto-statism and outright dissidence, getting the people back into the pews and then out into the streets will be an uphill struggle. For the People of God to exhibit “missionary fervor” will at the very least require that they be convinced they are supported by the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church they are charged to proclaim.

Posted by Marion Bilek on Wednesday, Dec 11, 2013 11:57 AM (EST):

Fr. Barron is a dynamic speaker. Our Bible Study Group purchased his DVD serie, we are glued to it. Fr. Barron personifies the title “Word of Fire.“What Vatican !! did to us pre-Vatican Catholics was to let down the rules, but did not substitute it with love.

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